In comments, Destinee wrote: As a black woman, I am befuddled by the excessive focus on Jewish issues at Alas this past month. Given that it was black people who built America as slaves, black people who had to fight for desegregation and civil rights less than 50 years ago, black people who continu...

Harvard professor and plagiarist Alan Dershowitz has a reputation for unfairly suggesting that Israel’s critics are antisemites. In response, Dershowitz says: I have challenged anyone who claims that mere criticism of Israel is often labeled anti-Semitism to document that serious charge by pro...

David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch have written the week’s most talked-about op-ed, “A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage.” It’s an eye-catching byline, because Blankenhorn - a marriage equality opponent I’ve criticized once or twice in the past — and Rauch, one of ...

From Petpluto at Art at the Auction: House is problematic in the way above, but also for the reason articulated by MaggieElizabeth, a poster at Television Without Pity: Ninety percent of the time, the woman gets to be the normal one. Sure, she’s competent, she’s tough, and she’s st...

I’ve been meaning to post about this for ages. Generally — with a very few exceptions — I don’t favor the “replace ______ with the word black” school of criticism.1 This is any argument that takes the general form “Suppose this offensive thing were being sai...

Cathy Young writes (emphasis hers): Lately, there has been a lot of discussion of the moral aspect of anti-crisis measures that, in effect, allow people to get away with bad or at least irresponsible behavior — specifically, bailing out homeowners who took out mortage loans they couldn’t realist...

Post what you like, with you like, for as long as you like. Self-link-love has been approved by Jocelyn Elders. “We’re Making A Better World“: how large governing organizations corrupt and crush individuals in Joss Whedon’s work. I wonder how this will play out in Buffy seaso...

Hilzoy is one of the best writers in the liberal blogosphere, but I have some issues with this post, which my esteemed co-blogger Jeff linked to. Hilzoy was responding to the image you see here, which is currently on the front page of US News and World Report’s “Washington Whispers.̶...

The title of the post is from this Chris Rock video — in particular, from the final minute of the video. Damn straight. True equality isn’t measured in how the extraordinary people do; it’s in how the mediocre do. When schmucks of all types are equal, then we’ve got something...

Please go sign the petition for single payer health care. And (more importantly), go see if your congressional representative is on this list, and if they are, contact them and ask them to co-sponsor HR 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. The torture conducted by the U.S. government...